PNG Goats

The inside of my house...

I don't want anyone to think that I am suffering out here in PNG. So I thought I'd show my cute little house. :)

Pizza night! :)

My Bedroom...

Fun times playing Settlers of Catan!

My living room

Porch activities...

One of the guys favorite things to do on my porch. The other activities include eating and taking pictures of very large bugs.

Another New Arrival...

Elissa, is my new Sous Chef, Assistant Chef! This weekend will be her first time working in the Kitchen!

New Arrivals...

Crazy German guys who invaded the campus - Richard, Michael and Christoph. And I have become their English teacher and of course I cook for them too.

SIL Youth Conference

We just finished cooking for the SIL Youth conference of 150 people. They ate a lot of food!!

Just a few Chicken Pot Pies...

I made a little bit of sauce to pour over our pork for Pork Stroganoff. :)

Efeke, kitchen employee, and her husband, Fred, our veggie buyer. Efeke is a believer, please pray that Fred will come to know the Lord too!! By the way this picture is very unusual. Husbands and wives are not seen in public hugging each other. So it was fun to catch their smiles in this picture!

Cockatoo

I've found that Cockatoos follow me everywhere I go. When I was home in MA a new family moved next door and had a pet Cockatoo. Now there is a wild one or a lost pet that has decided to camp out on my porch. Hopefully it will leave soon because it has started to eat my door. And all it knows how to say is "Hello Koki". :)

Goroka Show...

Papau New Guinea celebrates isn't independence from Australia every Sept 15th by putting on a show with many different tribal groups singing and dancing. This year I was able to go! And I had lots of fun taking pictures.

Little Beth came to visit...

Beth and her mom stopped in for a visit the other day. Beth has grown so much since the last time I saw her. She will be 2 years old in October.

This is Beth's mom, Peku, with Beth. Peku works in the kitchen with me.

Lastest Project...

I've attempted to grow my own herbs and it is quite exciting to watch! I'm not very good at growing plants of any kind. Of course starting out with a Chia Pet Herb Garden has helped tremendously. :)

Cozy Germs...

I still cook one meal a day for the short term guys and a lot of times they (Michael and Friedy) sleep in the hammock afterwards before heading back to work. I couldn't resist getting this crazy shot! :)

Heading into the Jungle of the Sepik...

I had the privilege of going on one of our side trips with the students into the jungle. I went along to cook for the 9 of us as we headed in to see how God is working in a Sepik tribe where NTM missionaries are located. It was an amazing experience for the students and for us leaders as well, to see how God has transformed the tribal people into His children! Here I am with one of the believers.

After an early departure from INTERFACE, (plus a crazy 2 weeks of unpacking, working in the kitchen 10-12 hours a day, and packing for side trip for me), most of us slept for 2 hours in the C90 flight on the way to another air strip, just 30 km from Indonesia. :)

Then we flew from an old military airstrip on a 206 to an airstrip where some NTM missionaries used to work, about a 20 minute flight.

We landed at an airstrip and had to hike 1 1/2 hours to the missionaries houses, the three white buildings.

Hiking into the tribe...

We visited a home in the tribe. We were a little scared that it would fall apart when all 9 of us were walking around in it. But it was fine!

One of the believers preaching in church on Sunday. It was wonderful to worship God with others from another language group. Even though we didn't understand we knew they knew our Saviour.

Sing Sing House

We hiked 2 hours through lots of mud! There were some logs to walk on so that we wouldn't have to tramp through the mud, but we all managed to fall off many times! We finally made it to this Sing Sing House where we spent the night as we watched and listened to the people sing and dance. It was quite an experience!!

My brand new sneakers while hiking in the muddy swamp to the Sing Sing House. It was CRAZY and lots of fun!!

Inside the Sing Sing House it was really dark except for a few fires going, while the people sang and danced all night long.

Hiking back to the tribe after spending the night at the Sing Sing House...

We are all dead tired after a long hike through the muddy, swampy jungle...

July/August INTERFACE team

Pray that God would continue to challenge the students lives for missions as we head out on Friday for the side trip to a few bush locations. I get to go and cook for one group headed into the jungles of the Sepik! Pray for safety as well! Thanks!

INTERFACE Staff

Doug and Cheryl; Emerson, Miriam and Emma; Doug and Kara; Janie; Simon; Simple; Dave and Sally; Herb, Jana, Caleb and Alicia; and me.

Back in the Kitchen again!

Julie and I are sporting our new aprons, made by the Pioneer Girls in my home church. All the national ladies LOVE them and put them on immediately! :)

Arrival in PNG!!

I made it here with both my bags! I was able unpack my whole house in 2 days and now I am full swing in the kitchen again. It is rather crazy! But God continues to give me strength. In case you need proof of my arrival, I will post a picture tomorrow as proof. :)

Heading to my Final stop... Bribane, Australia

Sorry, I have no pictures of Brisbane because all I did was sleep there, I was so dead. I was thankful for all my layovers because it has helped me get over jet lag so much faster once I arrived and jumped right into everything.

Second stop... Honolulu, Hawaii

It was my first time traveling through! Beautimous, but hot! The same as Alberta, just added humidity. But I still enjoyed relaxing before the craziness of the kitchen started again. :)

I enjoyed my full day in Hawaii wandering around... my last bit of freedom before returning to PNG!

First stop... Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

I really enjoyed my time in Alberta visiting a friend and his family for 5 days!

The World's Largest Teepee

One of Medicine Hat's landmarks is the world's largest teepee. It gest bigger as you get closer to it!

I tried to use the self timer and ran but I didn't quite make it, in order to face forward in time. :)

Heading back to PNG...

My parents thought it was pretty funny that my carry on, back pack was bigger than me. :)

Goodbye to family...

Please pray as I have to say Goodbye to my family for 2 years. Pray for my family as well! It is always bittersweet to say goodbye. I will miss them, yet I am very excited to return to PNG.

Goodbye to my car...

Saturday was a sad day because I had to give my car back to Charley (man from one of my supporting churches in CT). I was so thankful for his generosity! He let me use his extra car for the entire time I was home. I have enjoyed the freedom of driving while I had a chance because in PNG I don't have that freedom.